The Swedish Parliament

Sweden is a democracy. Democracy means people rule. The people rule: in other words, the people decide how society is organised, and what laws there are. How does that work? Do all the people meet in one place to talk about, and come to decisions about things?

No. There are too many of us to do that. Instead, we do this: The people choose individuals they trust, and these are allowed to represent the people. When Sweden has an election, all adult Swedes - that is, those who are at least 18 years old, and are Swedish citizens - join in the process of voting for the individuals and the parties who will represent them. In total, 349 individuals are chosen to form Sweden’s parliament: the Riksdag.

If a party gets twenty percent of the votes in an election, Then that party can take twenty percent of the places in the Riksdag. They get twenty percent of the ‘mandates’. So the proportion of the mandates a party gets in the Riksdag closely follows the proportion of the votes the party gets in the election. This is called proportional representation. The Riksdag sits in the middle of Stockholm.

And in there, in a large chamber called ‘Plenisalen’ they sit and decide things. Those who sit there are called members of the Riksdag. But they can’t decide about absolutely everything. Here are five important things the Riksdag is responsible for. The Riksdag shapes new laws, or makes changes to old ones.

We say that the Riksdag is Sweden’s law-making assembly. Legislation - creating laws - is the Riksdag’s biggest and most important task. Something else the Riksdag decides is how much money the state should allocate to various areas: education, defence, policing, the arts, childcare and many more. The Riksdag makes the final decision about the state’s budget. In the budget is also written how much money the state should receive in taxes, customs duties, tolls and fees.

It is the Riksdag’s responsibility to appoint a prime minister. Then it’s the prime minister’s job to choose the other people who will be members of the government’s cabinet. The Riksdag is also responsible for ensuring that the cabinet is doing its job properly, and is abiding by the existing laws. If a majority of Riksdag members do not have confidence in one of the government’s ministers, then this minister can be removed by something called a vote of no confidence. Then the Riksdag does one other important thing, that all EU member states do.

The EU also establishes laws, and these laws must be followed in Sweden. Leading members of the Riksdag and the government meet in the Committee on EU Affairs to discuss which policies and which laws Sweden shall propose in the EU. So, the members of Sweden’s Riksdag represent the people. They are appointed in a general election. The parties get seats - mandates - in proportion to how many votes they get in the election.

Then the Riksdag appoints a prime minister, who in turn appoints a cabinet. The Riksdag is Sweden’s law making assembly. As well as laws, the Riksdag also decides on the budget, it monitors the government, making sure it fulfils its job, and the Riksdag shapes the government’s EU policies via the Committee on EU Affairs.